scathing

You want a sports coupe, buy the Silvia. You want a grand tourer, buy the Skyline. It boils down to your aims. If every day is race day, the Silvia's more nimble. If you want something that is comfortable to drive around on the street, sounds mean, and lets you carry more than 1 passenger without having knees pushed into your back, buy the Skyline.

Because they built the S15 to be agile and handle. They didn't want a crapload of engine hanging forward of the front struts, or create a bigger car to fit an engine that long without ruining the weight distribution.

Define "efficient". Making more power out of the same displacement, but where the turbocharged engine is using a lot more fuel to make its lots more power, isn't "efficient" unless your idea of efficiency is calculating the ratio of power against engine size.

None, but they're custom built race cars so their packaging options are different within the engine bay. And they also run anti-lag, which means they retain NA-like throttle response which no street legal car is ever going to replicate. WRC cars only make 220kW at the flywheel as well. Considering an S2000 makes 180kW and that's a street car with emissions control and doesn't require a rebuild after every week of driving, I guess by your (il)logic turbo engines must just be unreliable nuggets that barely make any more power than a well made NA engine. Or maybe such a simplistic comparison don't work since there are a myriad of other factors.....?

So what you're saying is you bought a good handling grand tourer, but you have no interest in actually driving it in the way the engineers set it up for. Fair enough.

You left out the fact that NA cars also have a lower kerb weight, and that weight is taken out from the front of the vehicle so the car's also less nose heavy. But then, you'd have to be interested in cornering for that to be considered a "pro" (which you evidently aren't, since you're only ever talking about "dragging" people). Horses for courses.

Why? Some of the most enjoyable cars to drive are 4 cylinders, assuming you want to drive fast and you're not just interested in cruising around. The fastest "production" car around the Nurburgring is a NA 4 banger, and it runs a time the next GT-R hasn't got a hope in hell of beating.

Considering every "sports car" VQ has been NA, lets wait and see what the next GT-R is running before we make a call about which one is superior. Turboing an RB25DE isn't going to net you massive power without "major mods" either. The VQ35DE was designed with a particular brief, and so its componentry reflects that. Still, a standard VQ35DE out of a 350Z will make a reliable 300rwkW (at 9psi through the pair of Garrett GT2835Rs), with a near-linear power graph. The first guy in Australia to get the APS TT kit has been running those power levels for a couple of years (including a few track days) and the engine is still fuss-free. That's quite a bit of reliable power, and the engine is more responsive than a stock turbo RB or SR due to its high compression. If the GT-R comes out this year (as its meant to) and has the rumoured VQ38DETT (or HRTT, since it'll probably be using the same dual-entry head as the VQ35HR you mentioned), I get the feeling that it'll give the VQ its 14th year at the next round of awards.

Actually, I was referring to any country road that isn't comprised of high speed sweepers. So, since you're in Melbourne, I was referring to stuff like Black Spur, Great Ocean Road between Anglesea and Apollo Bay, and to a certain extent Mt Dandenong. So the circumstances aren't that "specific", if you're into cornering. Roads like that aren't rare or specific, its just hard to find them as relatively unpopulated as the examples I've given. On GOR, when you go west just past Apollo Bay and into the forest, the corners open up and become a lot more sweeping, and that's where all the extra power and taller final drive of a turbo will give it a significant advantage. But those are 160km/hr corners+ (not that I'd ever condone going that fast on public roads, of course). However, on the parts where it hugs the water, and you're in 2nd / 3rd gear, the extra response, better grip to power ratio, and lighter weight of a NA car would give it more than a fighting chance of keeping up.

1:10 around Wakefield Park is more than just a "scare". There's plenty of more-than-light-tune turbo Silvias and Skylines that would struggle to break into 1:12 there. And Dumhed's engine is running a stock bottom end - to my knowledge aside from an exhaust and intake all he's got is cams and PowerFC. So its not exactly some purpose built race engine either.

If you're not concerned about fuel economy, another suggestion would be to run the final drive / LSD out of a NA Skyline. That'll pull your gearing down, and so you're more likely to stay up in the rev range where you can more easily make boost. No idea how much a VQ35DE will cost you here. A brand new engine from Nissan Australia is upwards of $8K, and there aren't enough written off 350Zs yet to have much of a front cut market. Jap importers might be able to bring you something in, though. Pro Concept told me they have a spare short motor, which I don't think they need since they're no longer working on a race car. Not sure what bits are missing though.

In your original post you said it was an RB20DET going to RB20DE. My engine knowledge isn't encyclopedic, but the last time I checked pulling the turbocharger off an engine didn't give it another half a litre of displacement. So you basically did what everyone else told you to do, and got an engine conversion. I fail to see where you're getting "naysayers" from, since the objections people raised to your idea were for a situation you decided not to go through with.

Not in the straights, but on the right winding road I don't see it as being incorrect or dreamy.

RB30 bottom end would probably cost you less to do, and be more reliable as you don't need as much stuff custom made. Would that provide enough torque for your needs?

Same here! Every time I've got a track day on, I seem to have a birthday or a work function the night before. In all seriousness, I'll check my fluids (I don't flush the oil as often as some, but my car's NA so its not quite as critical) and pads. Clean out all the garbage from the car. Probably give it a hand wash, since that way you go over every inch of the vehicle and you might see something amiss rather than find out on the track. Also make sure everything I need (license, tyre pressure gauge, jack, spare tyre) is in the vehicle. On the day after I sign in I'll empty the other stuff I don't need for the track (spare tyre, etc) and check my tyre pressures.

I guess Commodores just do their best work while not moving. In those photos, though, shouldn't there be a bloke sitting in the seat with a handheld speed detection device or something?

I am probably going.

How much power do you want? Are you chasing power, or do you just want lots of bottom end and midrange to make the car as "lazy" as possible to drive (like an old Commodore / Falcon with their cast iron V8s)? If you just want something that you can whack into a higher gear and cruise around in, with maybe low boost down the track, give some thought to the VQ40DE out of a current Pathfinder. A lot more torque (its a stroked version of the VQ35DE), but is down in outright power and has a lower redline. It also runs a slightly lower compression, so if you do go for low boost you can run a little more with this engine safely. Only issue is that the engine is a bit taller than the VQ35, so you may need a power bulge in the bonnet. Engine's also a transverse mount, but the 350Z drivetrain apparently bolts straight up to it.

Because the cops don't pull you over only if you've done something wrong. They pull you over if they think you've done something wrong, or might have, or are likely to. And on what evidence do they base their profiling.......?

Yeah, except he said in his first post that he wants more grunt down low. What can you do to an RB25 to make up for that 1L defecit low in the rev range, aside from nitrous or going to 3L (the latter still not being enough to compare torque to a VQ35DE with a turbo)? I've driven VQ35DEs with centrifugal superchargers, single turbos and twin turbos. Off boost those things feel like a standard VQ35DE (i.e. lots of torque), and on small amounts of boost they make an impressive amount of power. The bottom end will take just under 300rwkW which will retain all that response while giving you a usable amount of power if you get on the boot. If you can afford to do it, do it. The engine is lighter and more compact, although trying to get the mounts and the gearbox etc to line up might take some work.

The buses aren't too bad from there. I've caught one on the weekend from that location - not sure about during the day. Parramatta Road (biggest arterial road into the CBD) is hell during peak hour. As a Melbournite, you have no idea what peak hour can be like until you've been to Sydney. I remember reading in The Age that you guys have complained about congestion in Melbourne - you guys should come to Sydney and then realise Melbourne's like a Sunday morning cruise in comparison.

The 280ps cap on JDM passenger cars was a "gentleman's agreement" between the Japanese auto makers and their department of transport. After a massive furore about dangerously fast supercars (etc), rather than get regulated the OEMs chose to voluntarily "limit" themselves to 280ps. It had nothing to do with tax, and any car manufactured in Japan that was built purely for export wasn't subject to this power cap. It was also never "checked" by the government, so the OEMs kept printing 280ps on their brochures while making....however much power those cars made. Otherwise, the cars where money was no object (the supercars like the GT-R and NSX) would have far exceeded that limit a long time ago. I doubt your average GT-R or NSX owner would have given a rat's bum about a "luxury car tax", if it meant their cars could go faster. Its not like those things were cheap to start off with. However, for whatever reason that "agreement" didn't extend to the tuning arms of those manufacturers (only to OEM cars) so the 400R, Z-Tune and the various STis / RalliArt Evos were exempt. The gentleman's agreement was abolished a year or two ago, and so we'll start to see more and more cars come out with proper power figures.

What extra tax? The 280ps power cap wasn't a tax thing. And this engine would be far better spread of torque than the RB26DETT (which even by the time it hit R34 guise was still very doughy down low) and F20C, which would make it far more drivable. Since its going into a luxury car and not a balls-out sports car, its also aimed for a different market. With the next M3 due out in a few months with a far bigger V8 that's rumoured to put out 300kW, what's the bet that the next 335i will make more power, since it then won't threaten the E46 M3's position as the top of the 3 series tree? Hey, nice tinfoil hat! The engine awards aren't for the highest specific power output. They're for the best all-round road car engine. That includes its construction, use of technology, economy, power delivery, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Kings Cross is a lot worse than St Kilda, but its probably the closest comparison. Kings Cross is Sydney's Red light / party district, but its a lot rougher. If anything, St Kilda reminds me of Oxford St in Darlinghurst (aside from the fact that Oxford St is traditionally a gay area). Oh, and if you expect stuff to be open late like in Melbourne you're in for a big disappointment. However, Bondi Junction does sound close to what you want. However, the last time I went down to Bondi on a Saturday night nearly everything was closed by midnight. Inner city, like Glebe, might also come close since there are a few unis nearby, but once again everything closes. If your cafe culture interests is more like Lygon St, then try Leichardt. Norton St is pretty much like a smaller version of Lygon.